Kavala

Settlers from Thasos founded Neapolis, the "new city", in the 7th century BC, to exploit the gold and silver mines of Mount Pangaion. By the end of the 6th century BC it had broken away from Thasos and was issuing its own silver coins, and during the Peloponnesian War it stayed loyal to Athens. It became a Roman civitas in 168 BC and was a base for Brutus and Cassius before their defeat there in 42 BC, and the apostle Paul landed at Neapolis on his first voyage to Europe. As Byzantine Christoupolis it was fortified against Bulgarian raids, and the Normans probably burnt it in 1185.

The Ottomans first took the town in 1387. In the 16th century Ibrahim Pasha, Grand Vizier of Suleiman the Magnificent, rebuilt the old Roman aqueduct and helped the town grow, and the Byzantine fortress on Panagia was extended. Muhammad Ali, the founder of the dynasty that ruled Egypt, spent his youth here, the son of an Albanian tobacco and shipping merchant, and in 1817 he endowed the Imaret, a large charitable and religious complex on the peninsula. By the 19th century Kavala was a major centre for processing and trading tobacco.

Bulgaria captured the town in the First Balkan War; the Greek navy took it in the Second, and it became Greek under the Treaty of Bucharest of 1913. Bulgarian forces occupied it again from 1916 to 1918. After 1922 thousands of refugees from Anatolia provided the labour for a new tobacco boom, and many of the warehouses of that era still stand. During the Bulgarian occupation of 1941–1944 almost the entire Jewish community was deported and murdered at Treblinka.

Kavala calls itself the "cyan city", and its municipal symbol is the head of the goddess Parthenos, patron of ancient Neapolis, taken from the town's old coins. The townscape tells its story: an Ottoman aqueduct and Imaret, the Byzantine castle, the Mehmet Ali house with its equestrian statue, and the tobacco warehouses; the town hall, built by a Hungarian tobacco trader, is a miniature Hungarian castle.

The Philippi Festival, held every summer since 1957, brings theatre and music to the ancient theatre at Philippi. Religious tradition is strong: the apostle Paul's arrival is part of local identity, and a small church on the road to Philippi marks the spot where, according to Christian tradition, Paul, Silas, Timothy and Luke rested. The local church still carries the title "Metropolis of Philippi, Neapolis and Thasos".

The refugees from Pontus, Cappadocia and Asia Minor who arrived after 1922 shaped the town and the villages around it, from the kitchen to the Cappadocian village of Nea Karvali. Kavala's character is that of a working port — ferries, fishing boats and tobacco history — more than a resort, with an evening life centred on the harbour and the old town's tavernas.

The municipality had about 66,000 people at the 2021 census, a little fewer than in 2011, making Kavala one of the larger towns of northern Greece. It is the principal seaport of eastern Macedonia and the capital of its regional unit.

Fishing was traditionally the main occupation, and the town remains an important centre of commerce, tourism, fishing and oil-related activity, while the tobacco trade that once made it prosperous survives mainly in its buildings and museum. The port handles the ferries to Thasos, Lemnos and Lesbos as well as fishing boats and a marina, and the town is a base for visitors heading to the island and the beaches of the coast.

Daily life follows the sea and the seasons. Apartment blocks climb the hillside above the harbour, the Saturday market brings fruit and clothing stalls to the centre, and summer swells the population with ferry passengers and holidaymakers. In the evenings people walk the waterfront and eat at the harbour and in Panagia.

Fish and seafood dominate Kavala's cooking, and the recipes of the refugees from Pontus and Asia Minor have added their own influence. Sardines, garidosalata (shrimp salad), mackerel gouna — sun-dried and grilled — kavouropilafo, mussels with rice, herring saganaki and anchovies wrapped in vine leaves are among the town's known dishes, with stuffed aubergines and lamb with spinach on the meat side.

The area's grapes, wine and tsipouro, the grape spirit drunk with meze, are well regarded. The best-known sweet comes from Nea Karvali, the village east of town settled by Cappadocian refugees: kourabiedes, sugar-coated almond biscuits.

Eating out means the fishing harbour at the east end of town, where restaurants and bars line the seafront, and the tavernas tucked into the lanes of Panagia. Many restaurants line the street that climbs from the port to Muhammad Ali's house, and the old district around Agios Nikolaos church has cafés, ouzo bars and small restaurants. The Saturday-morning market in the centre sells fruit and clothing.